Fair Use Explained

Fair use provisions of U.S. copyright law allow use of copyrighted materials on a limited basis for specific purposes without the permission of the copyright holder.

Is my use fair? -- The four factor test:

FACTOR

WEIGHING TOWARDS FAIR USE

Purpose of use

Nonprofit, educational, scholarly or research use; Transformative use: repurposing, recontextualizing, creating a new purpose or meaning

Nature or type of work

Published, fact-based content

Amount Used

Using only the amount needed for a given purpose; Using small or less significant amounts

Market Effect

If there would be no effect, or it is not possible to obtain permission to use the work

It is necessary to weigh all four factors to decide whether a fair use exemption seems to apply to a proposed reuse. Courts take a holistic approach -- they do not simply add up a positive or negative for each factor.

Judges have tended to focus on two questions that collapse the four factors:

Does the use transform the material, by using it for a different purpose?